


Testing Boundries

by Aquinna26



Series: A Whole New Life [2]
Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 01:01:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17436878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquinna26/pseuds/Aquinna26
Summary: She's safe now, she's adopted, no one is going to take her away, no one can send her away....she is free to be herself...finally





	Testing Boundries

**Author's Note:**

> This popped up in my mind. It's stand alone from the original story, but it's going to make much sense if you don't have an understanding of the world I created. Would probably make sense to read A whole New Life first.

Three months after the adoption (Kelly and Matt are shift, Mack has school vacation):

“Captain Severide, there is a call for you in the bullpen,” Kelly heard as he stood with Tony and Capp on the apparatus floor looking over the inventory list.

“Can you guys finish this, then we’ll head over to main?” Kelly asked already walking backward toward the doors to pick up whatever call was waiting for him.

“Sure thing,” Tony said turning back to Capp in order to finish.

Kelly turned and walked into the Firehouse and toward Connie’s desk, “A call for me?”

“Yes, Chief said you can take it in his office,” Connie said ominously.

Kelly’s stomach dropped to through the floor, things were just going too smoothly lately, Mack had finally gotten her wish of a boring life!

“This is Captain Severide,” Kelly said picking up the phone in Boden’s office, who was currently out of the house at Central.

“Kelly, it’s me, Erin,” Erin Lindsey said quickly.

“Oh, God!” Kelly replied instinctively.

Erin laughed, “No one is dead, although Mack seems to think she may be in a little bit when you see your truck,” Erin said with amusement in her voice as she sat on her desk looking at Mack slamming her head against Jay’s desk, while Erik and Mike looked on chagrined.

“MY WHAT?” Kelly exclaimed!

“There was a slight mishap with the 4-runner, you may want to come down to the district….” Erin started, “Kelly, just remember everyone ok, and it’s just a car…” Erin said with a firm voice as if trying to convey to Kelly some type of hidden message.

“I’ll be right there,” He replied through gritted teeth before hanging up, grabbing his wallet and coat from his locker and going to find Matt, who was in the common room refereeing some ridiculous argument between Otis and Mouch.

“I need the keys to the truck,” Kelly said walking up to his boyfriend without saying hi, they’d driven Matt’s truck into work because Shay was using his car to take Mack and a couple of friends out the night before.

Matt turned around surprised, “What’s up?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I just got a call from Lindsey, apparently the three stooges are at the district and she reminded me that it was just a car and that they are ok,” Kelly said getting increasingly mad.

At first, he’d mourned the loss of his Camaro but as time went on, he’d developed quite a love for his 4-runner, so much so that the others had started to make fun of him for it. Ever since Mack got her license the month before, she’d been _begging_ Kelly to let her take it out with her friends, which Kelly had _emphatically_ said no too several times.

Matt’s eyes went wide, “Do you want me to go get her?” He asked hoping Kelly would say yes, because it was times like these, they’d all learned that Kelly was best left to cool down before addressing the situation.

“No, I’m her legal guardian, and seeing as how I’m going to pick her up at a _police station_ , I have a feeling that is going to come up somehow or another,” Kelly said unsnapping the carabiner from Matt’s back belt loop. “We need to rethink our friendship group, we have firefighters, EMTs, detectives, we’re missing a lawyer or two, I have a feeling I might need one. Cover for me with Boden?” Kelly said walking backward out of the house.

“Ha, not funny, Hermann and I have this covered, maybe wait to have a chat with her until I get home?” Matt asked hopefully, although he knew that probably wouldn’t happen.

“It is 11:45 in the morning, I still have more than half my shift left, she’s coming back here with me,” Kelly responded, “and scrubbing every single fucking toilet in this place,” he added.

Matt tended to be the peacekeeper between them. It seemed to the men that once the adoption had gone through, Mack’s true nature had bubbled up to the surface and Kelly _finally_ figured out why everyone was always comparing her to him as a teenager. Shay’s current running line was “who says stubbornness and abject bullheadedness was only genetic?” when the two of them would get into it. They weren’t fighting all the time per se, it was just that Mack was clearly testing the limits and figuring out what she could get away with. Tony’s wife also had a theory that some of this was a repressed reaction to her childhood experience. That now that Mack was secure with a “forever family,” she felt safe enough to act out on her other traumas. Kelly at first thought it was a little _too_ physco babble for himself, but he was starting to see what she meant. Mack had been working with her once a week for the last three months, in addition to a 2x/monthly meeting with Kelly well. Events and experiences from her early years had come up more and more that made Kelly realize that life had not been as peachy keen as Mack liked people to think it had been.

Kelly tried to calm himself down as much as he could while driving over to district 21’s precinct. He parked across the street and after looking both ways quickly, jogged across and up the stairs to be greeted by the ever-positive Platt.

“The delinquents are upstairs,” Platt stated quietly by way of a greeting while buzzing the open house was happening. “Tell Tweedledee and Tweedledum their parents are on the way. You can send them down here if you want and I’ll watch ‘em.”

Kelly smirked at her and headed up to the intelligence office, reminding himself to stay calm. He walked into the office to see Atwater, Al, and Ruzek standing off to the side working whatever case they had going on. Looking forward, he saw Voight standing at the door to their break room with Lindsay and Halstead looking at the three teens in the break-room.

“Erin!” Kelly said walking up to the three detectives.

“Severide, let’s chat,” Voight said grabbing the fire captain and pulling him into his office before Kelly could get to his charge and her friends. Voight was thinking back to when Erin had come to live with him and his wife, how she’d tested the boundaries of their “love” when she realized she wasn’t going anywhere, he thought maybe he might be able to help.

The two men walked into Voight’s office, the Sargent shut the door and leaned against his desk taking in the fire captain.

“Nothing too bad happened…they were out at Rainbow beach, got into a fender bender, although your rig seems to have taken the brunt of the damage. Given that she had her wingmen with her, the officer had to bring them in, she asked the guy to bring them here.” Voight said chuckling a little at the fact the girl had clearly learned to be the “daughter” of Severide had some benefits. “I spoke with the officer, he’s going to write a warning. She’s not in any legal trouble.” Voight finished.

Kelly stood listening to Voight as he described Mack’s morning, counting in his mind all the things she’d done, that he had specifically said NO to the night before, going to the beach (she had work to do), hanging with Mike and Erik (She would supposedly see them later when they came to the house for the CFD Explorers shift), TAKING HIS CAR (that was a big fat NO), and last driving with more than one other friend when she knew that it was the against the rules of her graduated license.

After Erin called Kelly, she’d filled Voight in on Mack’s testing Kelly’s boundaries of late so Voight knew some of what had been going on in the last three months. “Look, far be it from me to give parenting advice, but I’ve heard a little bit about that girl’s past.” Voight started, “She’s testing you, seeing how far she can push,” Voight added.

Kelly smirked and chuckled, “Oh I know, she knows _exactly_ which buttons to push, it’s like she’s been observing and taking note over the last two years, building up all her intel on me,” Kelly said sarcastically, to which Voight let out a gravelly chuckle.

“One thing I learned with Lindsay, don’t let the small stuff out-weight the bigger issue here, and right now, today, this is small stuff.” Voight finished.

Kelly stepped forward and shook Voight’s hand, “Thanks, I appreciate it. You guys need any grunt work done around here in the next month, you give me a call, that girl will have plenty of time,” Kelly added as they walked out of Voight’s office and around the corner into the break room where Mack was sitting alone, Erik and Mike’s parent’s had clearly come to get them while he was talking to Voight.

“We need to head out, take all the time you need, “Erin said to Kelly before leaving with her crew.

Kelly stood inside the doorway of the breakroom with his hands in the front of pockets of his pants looking at Mack, who was doing her best at ignoring her. “Want to tell me what happened this morning?” He said quietly.

“You already know, Voight told you,” Mack replied petulantly.

Kelly shrugged, “I have his version of what happened, I was hoping you’d tell me your version,” He countered trying to remain calm as he came and turned a chair from the table to sit in front of Mack who was on the couch.

“It was so beautiful this morning and it’s been so crappy out, Mike and Erik texted. We were only going to be gone for a little bit. I was still going to get my history project finished before shift this afternoon,” Mack started.

“And taking my truck when I specifically told you I did not want you driving it, and breaking the law with having both Erik and Mike in the car?” Kelly prompted.

“It’s such an annoying rule, you can’t go anywhere with your friends! What was I supposed to do, leave one of them behind?” Mack exclaimed.

“Well considering you got in a car accident, I think that rule is there for a reason,” Kelly started just as his radio crackled to life,

 _“Sorry to interrupt, Squad’s been called out, they are swinging by the district in 1 minute,”_ Matt said through the radio, “ _We’re headed back from a call, we’ll swing by and bring the delinquent back to the house,”_ Matt said in jest.

Kelly rolled his eyes and jumped up, “we’re not finished with this,” he said to Mack as they ran down the stairs and out the door just as both rigs were pulling up. Kelly turned to look at Mack as he climbed up into his rig, “I want the bathrooms _sparkling_ when I get back,” he said giving no room for argument.

 

 

 

 


End file.
